This course will consider ways of understanding race and ethnicity in the context of Asian America. Our discussions will explore theories and histories of racial formation, with a special emphasis on interethnic and interracial interactions, and we will read these frameworks alongside a range of cultural representations. These materials will span textual genres and media, and we will analyze representations of and by Asian Americans, from long-obscured renderings of Asian American experience to popular texts and images that span the twentieth century. We will pay particular attention to recent literary works that complicate received categories of racial identity. Course requirements: in-class presentation and a substantial research paper.